Offshore oil and gas drilling and production installations such as platforms, drill ships, and drilling barges typically have kitchen and commissary facilities used to store and prepare food to feed the workers housed at these drilling and production installations. Food and commissary supplies are typically packed into shipping containers and delivered to these offshore installations by supply boats and moved from the supply boat to the offshore installation by means of a crane or other lifting mechanism.
Perishable foods are delivered in insulated shipping containers. Such perishable foods and beverages may include fresh vegetables, meats, and dairy products that require refrigeration or frozen foods that must be kept frozen in order to prevent spoilage. These insulated containers are loaded with a cooling medium such as ice or ice substitutes to keep the perishable foods cold. Such insulated shipping containers are often loaded with food boxes and the cooling medium and then left on loading docks to be subsequently loaded on a vessel and transported to the offshore location. Often containers loaded with perishable foods are left on loading docks for extended periods of time due to shipping delays that may be cause by the vagaries of weather or other contingencies or under adverse conditions such as elevated temperatures caused by prolonged exposure in hot sunny locations. These situations cause the ice or other cooling medium in the shipping containers to melt or warm to cause the food in the containers to warm and spoil. Shipping containers with perishable foods ma be damaged by dynamic loads during shipping and handling resulting in lost or contaminated foods.
Consequently, there is a need for a refrigerated shipping container for shipping perishable foods to offshore oil and gas locations that will maintain a desired temperature for the foods being shipped and that will withstand the rigors of loading and shipping that often occur in an offshore environment.